Stupid Cupid
by savannahreads
Summary: When Hermione gives her number to a charming, intelligent a man at a club whose identity she does not know, would she break it off with Ron, for a blind grasp at happiness? And why does Draco Malfoy keep calling her? T just to be cautious.


Chapter 1:

Hermione Granger was not having a good time.

She set down her drink and left the bar, ducking through the crowd to find Ron, who had disappeared hours ago. If he was shamelessly drunk, like she figured he'd be, she would just leave. If he was even a bit coherent, she would tell him off for dragging her here and then leave.

Simple.

As she maneuvered through the crowd, she caught an annoying amount of stray groping. What kind of place had he taken her to? As she passed by a couple three quarters of the way naked and locked in an embrace that lacked any hygienic sense, she thought, _What is _he_ doing? Or who?_ After searching for at least ten minutes and after having had every possible uncomfortable encounter she could have imagined within such a tightly packed, ultimately claustrophobic environment, Hermione finally spotted her long-absent boyfriend.

Ronald Bilius Weasley was not engaged in any sexual activity whatsoever, as Hermione had so indubitably expected, unless picking his nose counted. He sat in a dark corner chatting nervously to a very bored-looking girl, her eyes rolling and scanning around the room for escape when she spotted Hermione coming toward them.

With a relived smile and a breathless, "Thank GOD, he's all yours," Hermione found herself face to face with the man she had been so preemptively mad at only second before.

"Ron," she started, cautiously. He stared at her, his ginger hair muted in the dim of the club scene. "Ron, I have to go. I have work in the morning. I had a really great time though."

His expression didn't change as her tilted his head to one side, and then to the other, his gaze dropping to the floor.

"You're drunk." She glared at him and pushed him upright when he began to lean onto her.

"YOU'RE drunk," he slurry loudly, attracting the bemused attention of Harry from a table away.

"You want me to take him home? I think I'm gonna split, I gotta get back to Ginny, she told me not to stay out too long." He asked Hermione, coming around to stand by her side and watch as his best friend collapsed onto a table, spraying people's drinks everywhere, but mostly on himself and his strange muggle board shorts and beaded tee.

"Yes, please do, Harry. I don't know that I could stand another second of him." Hermione was disgusted and exhausted, and she really wanted to go to bed. She didn't actually care if Ron made it out of the club alive, she just wanted to leave.

As she made her somewhat obstacle bestrewn way to the door, she spotted possibly the only one thing that could possibly keep her there a second longer: the bachelorette party of Luna Lovegood.

Astonished, all thoughts of Ron were completely swept away as she angled her path toward the group, her jaw half unhinged in shock. Luna Lovegood did not notice when Hermione appeared. She was obviously busy. Hermione's eyebrows seemed to ascend ever farther into her hairline as her Hogwarts friend did rather obscene things on the lap of a man who seemed to be rather enjoying himself. Luna twisted and gyrated on the hips of the man she straddled, her eyes closed, pale hair swirling in the wet heat as her friends laughed and shouted in abashed glee.

Hermione turned her wide eyes upon the occupied witch's entourage. She didn't know most of them, but among the ones she could see, she recognized Parvati Patil and a girl whose name she couldn't remember, but had been a Ravenclaw. Hermione stared at their joyfully inebriated faces, then back at Luna, her countenance resembling a parched fish.

"Luna!" she shouted over the pulsing music that filled the heated air. "Luna!"

Luna's eyes opened suddenly and landed on Hermione's paralyzed form, inches away from her. She straightened immediately and, with a curious tilt of her head, she climbed off of her eager gentleman and offered a bright smile to her Gryffindor friend. Hermione acknowledged the attention of her companions as well.

"Luna..." Hermione cut herself off with a confused laugh. "Luna, what're you…?"

Luna wrinkled her brow then followed Hermione's gaze to the pouting man she had abandoned and laughed.

"Oh. Deidre said that I should make the most of my bachelorette party. She said I couldn't sit around gathering wrackspurts all night or no one would… what was it, again?"

A faceless girl materialized from the throng and shouted, very nearly falling, "Shag you, baby!" with an implied, "DUH!"

"No, that isn't it," Luna said, dismissing the notion.

"Luna, how have you been?" Hermione asked, desperately wanting to change the subject.

"Oh! Moonily, if I may insert my own phrasing. That is like your fantastic, as in so good it is almost fantasy." The pale girl smiled at her own ingenuity.

"Wow, so who's the lucky guy?" Hermione asked pointedly at the sparkling engagement ring on her relaxed left hand.

"Who?" Luna asked, looking behind her. "Him? Oh, I don't know, Parvati threw me on him a few minutes ago."

"No, Luna, who are you marrying?"

Luna looked distant for a moment, before suddenly saying, "Oh, yes. Neville gave me this. He asked me to marry him." She held her ring up to the flashing lights and dazzled Hermione's vision with the reflection.

"Ooh, Hermione, you look lovely with sparkles on your head. I am sorry for blinding you, though."

"Yeah, that's okay, Luna," the frazzled brunette mumbled as she shielded her eyes with her arms. "So, Neville, huh? When did that happen?"

"What?" Luna asked, distracted by the flashing dots of light she now directed into other poor victims eyeballs.

Hermione sighed and tried her best to retain interest, but there was just no escaping the debilitating weariness that settled in on her mind like a vast, dark cloud. She had to go home. She hadn't seen Luna since the year after the war or so, and would have preferred to meet her in any other circumstances, in any other scene.

"Look, Luna, it was great to see you after all this time." Luna nodded and dropped her arm, ending the unmerciful visual assault. "But I gotta run. Here, give me your number and I'll call you. We can keep in touch."

Hermione handed her old friend a pen and Luna wrote her telephone number in bold, even figures across her hand.

Hermione left the club a few minutes later, after departing from Luna with a sad smile and a "Good luck!" and navigating through the masses.

It was refreshing to step into the air. Old, new, flowing around her in even gust and breezes, not stagnant and hot, clinging to her skin like a tight, warm veil. Hermione rubbed her bare arms in the chilly night; she hadn't thought to bring a sweater, unfortunately. That was okay, her flat was only a few blocks away from the nightclub; she wouldn't be cold for long.

With a deep breath, Hermione took the step that would lower her off of the building's foundation and into the street. At that second, Hermione looked down reflexively to see something furry curled against the lip of the stone step. Her heel was on a collision course with its small body. At the last possible millisecond, Hermione retracted her foot, but her balance was too far gone, having expected to be caught by her shoe. Hermione saw the ground come up to meet her, and didn't even have time to close her eyes before she felt something solid hook around her waist, stopping her faces mere centimeters from the pavement.

Upon standing, she realized there was a man standing behind her, his arm securely wrapped round her middle. She pushed him off of her first, and turned to thank her savior.

But stopped. When his face reached her memory pool, she swam desperately around, trying to place the face with the name she knew she must have for him somewhere. High cheekbones in a kind, slender face, worry invading his sharp features. Staring. At her. He wore black robes and black trousers, offsetting his pale skin.

"Uhhmm…" Hermione managed weakly. She could feel her embarrassment burning through her flushed face. She swallowed. "Er, thank you."

"No problem," he whispered, bringing his hands to both sides of her face and staring into each of her eyes, his own grey eyes narrowed and flitting back and forth between her brown pair. "You okay in there?"

She blanched and choked a little, then cleared her throat, backing out of his reach. "Absolutely. Quite moony, really. Thanks again."

She started to turn, intending to put this utter mortification behind her and just get to friggin bed already, but a warm hand on her chilled skin made her halt. What did he want? Couldn't he tell she just really wanted to leave? She was cold, she was _so_ tired, and now filled with a resigned shame.

"Hey, wait a second." Hermione turned back to the man to see him crouching down to retrieve something form the street.

He straightened and held up in his hand a small grey kitten, apparently sleeping. Completely helpless. Hermione felt herself melt. She couldn't help it. It shivered in the frosty Autumn air, so forlorn and forgotten. Almost killed by her own three-inch heels.

"What are we going to do with this?" her savior asked, his face serious.

Hermione just stared at the poor creature and held out her arms.

The man chuckled and passed the kitten over to Hermione. "It's only fitting that you should be the one to take care of it. You almost killed it."

Hermione didn't even hear him. She held the small cat lovingly in her arms, cradling it against the warmth of her breast. "Thank you for saving us," she whispered, not knowing why she was doing so. "Good night, stranger."

She turned from him and managed a few paces before he called out, "Hey, Hermione!"

With a start, she pivoted and rushed back to him. "How do you know my name?" she ordered.

He backed up with a smirk, his hands raised above his head in surrender. "Hermione Granger, war hero. Everyone knows you, right?"

Oh. She should have known. For a second she'd thought maybe he knew her, too, just as she thought she might know him. No. She was just another face in the _Daily Prophet._

"Anyway, I was just going to say, maybe you should give me your number, so I can check up on our near-death-experience victim. I don't feel comfortable handing him over to someone with a possible concussion."

She gaped at him. "I didn't even hit my head."

He chuckled. "No, but you were jostled," he said playfully.

She sighed and turned away. "Good-bye again."

"Wait. Please? You seem to be collecting numbers anyway, why not exchange another and add to your collection? I really do want to check up on the little guy. He's decidedly adorable."

Hermione sighed once more and stuck her hand out impatiently. God, she needed to sleep. _Just let me get to bed!_ She thought aggressively.

She felt him finish the number on the back of her hand, and registered what he wanted her to do when he placed the felt-tip pen in her hand.

She scribbled her number, on his hand rather forcefully and shoved the pen back into his hand, finally turning away for the last time, marching herself and her kitten back home.

Hermione Granger. Hermione Granger. How many times had he waited to see her since the war, how many times had he practiced what he would say, and what did he do? Fuck it all up, that's what he did.

_Everyone knows you? I don't feel comfortable handing him over? _Everything had gone to hell when he realized she didn't even know who he was. Was he that unimportant to her? He just lost his nerve, but he knew he had to get her number.

And now that he had it, he would redeem himself soon.

**A/N: A mon dieu. I am tired. I feel like Hermione. =) So glad I finally hit 2,000 words so I could stop. I wasn't going to end this fic till the 2,000 mark no matter what! Whatever, now I'm doing some eshopping and conking the hell out. Yay. **

**By the way, I am so sorry if this is the worst first chapter of any fic you've ever read, but I am so tired, and you should never judge a half-dead author too harshly. I AM DOING MY BEST!**

**Lastly, please review/favorite/alert! They keep me motivated!**

**I love you for reading!**

**See you next time…**

**~ savannahreads**


End file.
